David Bruce This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
The recent incidents of vigilantism in Dube Village and Pimville have deservedly received front page attention in the press. However large numbers of incidents of this kind have been happening in South Africa over the last few years and many of them have not received press attention at all.
Thus many South Africans know the names of organisations such as Pagad and Mapogo a Mathamaga. On the other hand many mini-bus taxi ranks in South Africa, are "policed" by a system of mob justice which involves drivers and rank marshals. Sometimes after being assaulted, alleged criminals are handed over to the police. But despite the evidence of assaults it is virtually unheard of for any action to be taken by the police against members of the taxi industry who are involved in these incidents.
The problem is even more serious in some informal settlements in North West province. Some of these are controlled by vigilante committees and can only be entered by SAPS members in armoured vehicles. In these areas alleged criminals who are victims of vigilantism go nowhere near the police. If they do they face the risk of further assaults, and even of being killed, by members of the vigilante committees.
Many rank and file members of the SAPS tacitly support vigilante justice, while some of them may even overtly encourage it. It is frequently the case that, when the police hear a report that an alleged criminal has been apprehended and is being assaulted by members of the public, they deliberately delay their arrival on the scene. Sometimes this is because they wish to avoid the risky task of confronting an angry mob. At other times it is because they wish to allow the mob an opportunity to "deal with the suspect" first.
This may be because the SAPS members wish to avoid the paperwork involved in processing the case against the suspect. It also reflects a belief, held by many members of the SAPS themselves, that vigilante "justice" is likely to be more effective in dealing with the problem of criminality than is the formal criminal justice system of which they are representatives. The lack of confidence with the criminal justice system is therefore not a problem which is restricted to community members but extends to members of the system itself.
On one level the solutions to this problem of lack of confidence are fairly obvious to all of us. We need an effective criminal justice system which delivers a reasonable and consistent standard of service, both in the former white suburbs of the cities, and in township and other communities.
While government has moved forward in recent years, particularly in that it now clearly is taking the crime problem very seriously, it is not necessarily clear that government has a clear strategy to tackle the problem.
The SAPS's energies are focused at the moment on the high profile Crackdown strategy. While this may have short term benefits, evidence from police crackdowns in the USA indicates that their impact usually recedes, while crime recovers to its pre-crackdown levels.
One example of the type of issue which needs to be tackled in order for the overall standard of service by the police to be improved is the general problem of discipline within the police service. But while there has been forward movement on this issue, it is not being prioritised in the way which it needs to be.
It is becoming increasingly apparent however that the problem of providing effective policing cannot be tackled purely within the framework of the existing criminal justice system and existing policies. The key issue here appears to be the issue of community involvement in crime prevention and criminal justice.
According to the orthodox community policing model it was envisaged that community members would become involved in Community Policing Forums (CPFs) and other forms of cooperation with the police, but that this would stop short of direct involvement in policing activities.
There have been some successes with CPFs but community members and police have often been frustrated with this approach which in many cases has resulted in nothing much more than a slight improvement in community-police relations and an endless series of meetings.
While CPFs have played a role in reducing animosity between the police and communities, increasing questions are being asked about whether the existing community policing model does actually provide a solution to the problems of maintaining order in South Africa's crime ridden communities.
Thus in his State of the Nation Address, President Mbeki stated that intensified efforts would be made to encourage further community involvement in the fight against crime. However President Mbeki made no mention of CPFs and instead stated that the aforementioned efforts would "include the recruitment of 30 000 reservists" with the focus being on identified high-crime areas.
Bill Dixon, an analyst who is based in the Western Cape, has commented on a system of community patrols which operated in cooperation with the police in Nyanga. Dixon stresses that this was a creative response by the police and communities who are faced with high crime and the limited capacity of the SAPS to play an effective role in dealing with the problem. Dixon indicates, however, that at least one senior police official expressed concern about vigilante type actions on the part of patrol members in Nyanga.
A researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Bronwyn Harris, has also written about a similar type of system of community patrols with operates in Sector 4 in Alexandra. On a positive note it appears that in Sector 4 concerns about vigilantism are to some extent addressed, where community patrols apparently operated with official endorsement, and within a framework of respect for the law.
While there are positive examples there is also a grave risk that reproducing these models will simply reproduce vigilantism this time with apparent police approval.
If this type of approach is to be given further consideration it points again to the importance of the issue of discipline within the SAPS. If the SAPS is unable to effectively maintain proper discipline within its own ranks, it is unlikely that it will be able to assert proper controls, whether this is over types of community patrol or 30 000 newly recruited reservists.
This is already a problem with the existing police reservist system where police reservists in some cases operate without the SAPS asserting any form of direct control over their conduct.
David Bruce is a Senior Researcher in the Criminal Justice Programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
In the Sowetan, 5 March 2001.
© Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation
CSVR is a multi-disciplinary institute that seeks to understand and prevent violence, heal its effects and build sustainable peace at the community, national and regional levels.
